I am pleased to announce the Department of Energy has authorized implementation of the Laboratory's proposed Variable Compensation Program (VCP) in recognition of the Lab's calendar year 2010 performance. The VCP provides a one-time, lump-sum, non-base payment to eligible employees (see eligibility chart at
). The VCP includes two award components:
1) Strategic Performance Bonus (SPB), which pays up to 1.5 percent of annual base pay to all eligible employees. The actual amount paid is based on overall Laboratory performance, as determined by the Director.
2) Individual Performance Bonus (IPB), which may be awarded based on individual performance.
I have determined that employees' contributions to overall Lab performance in calendar year 2010 warrants an award of the full 1.5 percent SPB to all eligible Lab employees. While some details are still being worked out, pay-out is expected in April 2011 paychecks.
VCP awards are considered supplemental compensation and are not included in TCP1 or TCP2 plan eligible earnings. Additionally, VCP awards are taxable at the supplemental tax rate.
I also have established a working group, led by Art Wong, associate director of Strategic Human Resources Management, to work with Laboratory organizations to finalize the criteria and implementation process for the Individual Performance Bonus component.
The Strategic Performance Bonus offers the opportunity to acknowledge the accomplishments of LLNL employees. I truly appreciate the work you do at the Laboratory and the contributions you make every day. I will communicate additional information through NewsLine and other appropriate channels as it becomes available.
George Miller
Director
30 comments:
Wow... Good News for a change at LLNL.
You could knock me over with a feather.
Not so fast. Let's see if these one time, non-base building bonuses are used as an alternative to actual pay raises. Yeah, you'll feel good for a while, but no benefit to your pension. And no extension beyond the current year. ANd subject to extra taxes. Is that what you really want in recognition of your performance? IMO, just another way to reduce pension liabilities to LLNS.
I knew the Labs would find a way to work around Secretary of Energy Chu's directive. I'll take the money but what happened to the "shared sacrafice" that everyone was going to make? It will be interesting if LANS and Sandia will follow-suit.
"Not so fast. ..."
February 24, 2011 7:07 PM
Just like a livermoron to gripe about a bonus that the real nuclear weapon workers won't see.
It will be interesting if LANS and Sandia will follow-suit.
It sure will. All we've heard at LANL since Chu's announcement is nothing.
Considering we've taken, on average, a real-dollar pay cut every year for the last three or four years, there's not much more to hear.
Once DOE pours the raise pool into new buildings and equipment, we'll be able to do anything needed without workers.
Imagine the "deficit reduction" that will be accomplished through the "shared sacrifice" of redirecting the raise pool into other spending.
What a fraud. Does the general public really buy this kind of charade?
Humm--- this smells similar to Saudi King Abdullah increasing the benefits for citizens following months of surging discontent. AKA, hush money.
Enjoy the meager 1.5 % bonuses but prepare for a possible freeze-out of the NNSA lab TCP1 pensions. Sandia already headed down this path.
According to a news story today, it looks like CA and other states are about to go after the benefits of their pensions, possibly in violation of federal law, and then fight the legal challenges in the courts.
It makes you wonder whether the lab pensions will be next in line on our nation's current path of pension destruction? I give it only a few years at best before NNSA lowers the boom on the pensions of their contractor sites.
Since pensions are usually "back-loaded" to give their accumulative payout bonanza during the last few years of employment before age 60, anyone working at LLNL or LANL who is under the age of 55 would suffer huge losses in their future pension payouts.
~
Commission's plan rolls back pensions for current workers
Sacramento Bee, Feb 24th
The bipartisan Little Hoover Commission recommended today that California state and local governments roll back pensions for existing employees, dump guaranteed retirement payouts and put more of the pension burden on workers.
Although any attempt to reduce pensions for current workers would prompt a legal battle, the commission says that public pension funds are in such dire financial straits that they'll never right themselves by reducing benefits for new hires. The recommendation would not affect current retirees.
The most controversial Hoover proposal would allow state and local governments to freeze existing employee pension benefits and then lower them for future years worked.
Courts have ruled that pensions are legally protected property and that government has a contractual obligation to follow through with them.
The Hoover idea echoes a similar plan that the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility has said it hopes to put to a public statewide vote next year.
Such a measure, if approved by voters, would undoubtedly trigger lawsuits that would test government's ability to alter pension promises prospectively. The foundation believes that its ballot measure would hold up in court.
It will be interesting if LANS and Sandia will follow-suit.
Sandia has had variable compensation for years and my understanding is they were already distributing it at the time of the freeze announcement. I've heard alternative reports about whether they followed through with the original awards or re-allocated in light of the freeze.
Just like a livermoron to gripe about a bonus that the real nuclear weapon workers won't see.
February 24, 2011 7:32 PM
Only griping if it means the end of actual annual pay raises within the NNSA labs. Which I suspect it does. They floated this idea a few years ago and it went over like a lead balloon. Like all good bureaucrats, they shut up for a couple of years to let it blow over, then brought it out again, hoping no one would remember the first time, and the workforce would be younger and more ignorant.
If history is a guide. It will be withdrawn on Monday. Stay tuned.
Wait till Domenici hears this.
He will send his ring-wraiths on Nazgul to snatch it.
Wasn't expecting anything for a couple of years, so this bonus is a nice surprise. Still happy to be employed, and so far salaries have not decreased. I'm looking at the glass half full.
February 24, 2011 8:24 PM
Maybe its time to follow Egypt and Libia's lead
I'm looking at the glass half full.
I like your attitude. I think I will try it on for size, which is not the way I had been looking at things.
At LANL we have heard squat, zero, nothing, nada. Mike Anastasio has not had the balls to communicate with LANL employees AT ALL since Christmas. He has his AD's do it.I know he is a lame duck since he is retiring June 1 with the key word being "lame". I say good riddance.
You guys at Livermore have a fabulous Director. He had the "stones" to fight for your bonuses. We can't hardly wait for Anastasio to leave here Los Alamos. We are also hoping you guys will take Knapp and McMillan back. In that order. I just saw Knapp zipping through Santa Fe at 60 mph in a 35 mph trying to catch his SWA flight 5:00 back home to Livermore.
Bonus! Mmmmmm, mmmmm...just like putting a pacifier in a baby's mouth.
Bonuses at LANL are reserved for the lab royalty. People like Terry Wallace, Sue Seestrom, Charlie McMillan, Brett Knapp, et al.
As far as Anastasio is concerned, he could probably care less about helping the employees as he's headed for an extremely nice retirement on June 1st.
You'll likely find Mikey on some nice Caribbean beach in the future enjoying "fizzy drinks" and the tropical paradise view. This will help him to forget about his time serving as the warden at the LANL "prison". He's served the corporate fat cats at LANS/Bechtel and the NNSA bureaucrats very nicely, thank you very much!
It became very clear that Anastasio was nothing more than a carpetbagger in every sense of the word, an outsider who moved to Los Alamos to exploit the natives and enrich himself at taxpayer expense. He never even has the decency to shave, get a haircut, or bathe.
February 27, 2011 2:13 PM
Did Mikey ever actually move to Los Alamos? Or, did he just commute from California at the taxpayers' expense, like Bret?
Did Mikey ever actually move to Los Alamos? Or, did he just commute from California at the taxpayers' expense, like Bret?
February 27, 2011 3:26 PM
That's a good point. He was either renting or possibly bought a "quick sale" 2nd home foreclosure in Tesuque. I stand corrected.
Anastasio lives in Santa Fe, although I have seen him in the Los Alamos supermarket (the only one) buying lots of wine. While his wife complained.
"Anastasio lives in Santa Fe, although I have seen him in the Los Alamos supermarket (the only one) buying lots of wine. While his wife complained.
February 27, 2011 9:08 PM"
I heard on weekdays that he likes to go to blues shows in Santa Fe. Nothing wrong with that but the man seems to lots time on his hands.
It was hinted on today that bonus checks in lieu of any further pay raises is the way of the future for LLNL. By doing so your base pay which is used to calculate your future retirement has been capped and you can now calculate what your retirement is to be, no matter how many more years you stay. Just one more way to save money and benefits all while LLNS gets a bonus for doing so..I'd say this move on managements behalf is their way of freezing TCP-1 without any legal recourse.
As always, employee abuse will continue until large enough numbers of critical staff leave.
vote with our feet.
vote with our feet.
March 1, 2011 6:50 PM
Yes that is the only way to hurt NNSA and the LANS/LLNS corporate shills who are lining their pockets. Unfortunately, the worst has already been done. If LLNL is anything like LANL, there are multitudes of empty offices where the really important, competent, respected, experienced weaponeers have already retired, left for greener pastures, or otherwise called it quits, leaving younger, inexperienced workers who are completely subjugated by the corporate bosses and can't get anything done. There is no one to go to with important questions or clarifications of data and calculational results that could have been answered in minutes before. The expertise is already gone. So, the remaining folks "voting with their feet" will hardly be noticed. They'll just be replaced with more fodder. It will take about a decade, or maybe a world-changing event, for the politicians and the public to realize what they have lost in national security. Too late.
Yes, it is true that a great deal of the hard won critical expertise in nuclear weapons "artistry" has been lost.
But, on the other hand, staff now all wear "Shoes that GRIP!".
The NNSA and Dr. Chu probably see that pretty much as a toss-up.
Any more news on this? Have Miller figured out an appropriate excuse to renege yet?
April Fools day is only two weeks away.
Get ready for the announcement.
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